Widely tuneable ultra stable 1W two color THz laser source

Sandra Stry; Joachim R. Sacher

doi:10.1117/12.701951

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1 February 2007 Widely tuneable ultra stable 1W two color THz laser source

Sandra Stry, Joachim R. Sacher

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Proceedings Volume 6472, Terahertz and Gigahertz Electronics and Photonics VI; 64720H (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.701951
Event: Integrated Optoelectronic Devices 2007, 2007, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Coherent cw-THz-radiation allows access to new applications in the field of medicine, industrial process control, data communication and security applications. Major advantages of radiation in this spectral range are that it penetrates through e.g. plastics but is strongly reflected by metals and that molecules show distinct and distinguishable spectra so that a selective sensing of single species is possible. However, existing THz-sources are either very bulky or expensive. THz sources can require cryogenic temperatures or emit only low power radiation. Furthermore the setup is often very complicated and sensitive so that field measurements are not possible. Generation of THz radiation based on the technology of frequency mixing requires laser radiation with a difference frequency in the order of 0.1-2 THz. Due to the low efficiency of frequency mixers, high optical power is required for pumping frequency mixers. Furthermore, the small efficiency requires short optical pulses for avoiding a high heat dissipation of the frequency mixers. We investigated an ultra stable 1W two colour THz pump source for the generation of a THz beat signal with rapid single mode tuning over several THz. The system consist of a fixed wavelength and a motorized tuneable laser pump sources which are optical amplified within a pulse operation module. One laser is stabilized to an atomic reference while the other is locked to an optical cavity which can be tuned continuously. This signal is pump source for a state of the art frequency mixer, which is typically realized as LT-GaAs crystal with an antenna design.

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Sandra Stry and Joachim R. Sacher "Widely tuneable ultra stable 1W two color THz laser source", Proc. SPIE 6472, Terahertz and Gigahertz Electronics and Photonics VI, 64720H (1 February 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.701951

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